JAFW recently pointed at a story that has slipped under the media net: the latest misdeeds of the Wallace Corporation. It has been found guilty of dumping carcinogenic toxic waste, after charges were brought by Environment Waikato.
JAFW points out that this is just the latest in a string of environmentally irresponsible offences that can be laid at James Wallace’s door. He considers a consumer-boycott reaction (which is to my mind a good response if and only if it is accompanied by a letter of explanation to the companies boycotted).
Digging into the company website reveals that Wallace Corp is mostly in the meat business, with sidelines in leather, dairying and rendering.
The most interesting fact: Wallace has close ties with several organic meat producers, such as the Harmony farm’s “Natural Choice” brand, certified organic meat. Here’s the website (it isn’t accessible from the Harmony frontpage but google has easily busted down that wall of security).
It is also linked with Outlands NZ, which supplies organic meats to the Californian branch of U.S. eco-chain Whole Foods.
It concerns me that NZ organic meat is being delivered to market by a serial toxic-waste dumper.
(Note: I’m not entirely sure of the nature of the links between the organic meat farms and Wallace Corp. Wallace’s website says that it processes the beef, so I’m not sure if it is purely a service provider or if there is some ownership as well. Wallace’s Website calls its Paeroa operation “Wallace Harmony Foods” (purchased in 2004), and the Natural Choice brand is marketed by Harmony, so that points to an ownership link of some kind.)
(Also, JAFW also mentions that the Wallace Arts Award, an important NZ art award, is funded directly by the James Wallace of Wallace Corporation. Worth noting.)
4 thoughts on “NZ Organic Meat from an Eco-Villain”
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The thing about this is – Organic foods are a con.
All “organic” is taken to mean is that ‘artifical’ pesticides/fertilizers are not used. Plenty of ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ alternatives are just as bad as the ‘artificial’ ones that organic farmers try to avoid.
Plus, organic techniques are lower intensity, which means more land devoted to agriculture. That’s something that we ought to try to avoid (at least insofar as we can avoid it without destroying the land we use).
Overall, the link there doesn’t surprise me, anyhow.
For the record I read the title of this post as:
“NZ Organic Meat by Morgue!”
I laughed and laughed, till I read the article and figured out that this wasn’t your shout out to the world that you are in fact an environmental menace! I’m still waiting…
Hmmm…the question is could I boycott a product that, living in a vegetarian household, I am unlikely to buy anyway?
Yeah, that was one of the reasons I was fairly equivocal about boycott as a strategy. Though the organic meat associations mean that there could be mileage in encouraging supply-line pressure or boycott….